Early history of the site
The Tamaki River has traditionally been an important waterway for Maori, connecting the Waitemata and Manukau harbours via a short portage. Inhabitants of the area have included Ngai Tai, descendants of migrants from the Tainui canoe that once traversed this route. During the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, the Tamaki Isthmus and surrounding districts were controlled by a confederation of Tainui peoples known as Waiohua, which included Ngai Tai. Perhaps in the late seventeenth century the Ngati Whatua leader, Kawharu, attacked settlements beside the Tamaki River, and also Ngai Tai strongholds further east.
According to historian Russell Stone, Ngati Paoa had settled on the east side of the river by the late eighteenth century and also occupied a smaller area on the west, probably near modern Panmure. A Ngati Paoa stronghold at Mokoia pa was situated at the mouth of Panmure Basin, controlling access to this tidal lagoon and also overlooking a relatively narrow stretch of the river. In the early nineteenth century, European visitors commented on the density of occupation and extent of cultivation in the area. In 1821, Mokoia and its associated trading station at Mauinaina were attacked by Ngapuhi under Hongi Hika. Although a few defenders escaped from Mokioa by swimming to the east bank of the Tamaki, both settlements were rendered tapu by the number of people killed and subsequently abandoned.
A signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand’s founding document, took place north of Mokoia, at Karaka Bay, in March 1840. In 1848, a colonial township was established beside the basin at Panmure as part of a network of military ‘Fencible’ settlements to the south of the colonial capital at Auckland. Four towns, comprising Onehunga, Otahuhu, Panmure and another at Howick to the east of the Tamaki, were settled by military pensioners from Britain. A fifth township, at Mangere, was occupied by local Maori. Collectively, these settlements were intended to protect Auckland from possible attack by Maori forces opposed to government authority, but can also be seen as a part of a colonial strategy to economically develop the southern part of the isthmus and enhance Auckland’s role as an entrepot. The pensioner settlements formed part of a new strategy used by Great Britain to both aid colonisation and reduce expenditure on military pensions. The New Zealand settlements have been regarded as representing the first use of the ‘enrolled pensioner’ system in the British colonies, which was subsequently employed in Australia, Canada and the Falkland Isles.
Preparations for creation of the Panmure Swing Span Bridge
Physical communication between the new townships was vital for their survival and growth. Waterborne transport connecting Panmure to other settlements included regular cutter services launched from Auckland in 1848. In 1852, the first steamer built in New Zealand, the Governor Wynyard, travelled to Panmure on its maiden voyage, having been expressly designed for ‘the Tamaki trade’. The Tamaki River remained an important trading route for settlements on its banks in ensuing years, being considered one of the busiest waterways in New Zealand in the late 1850s.
Overland transport was initially rudimentary. Road travel between Panmure and the outlying township at Howick, for example, involved crossing the Tamaki by punt. The government-maintained boat was slow and occasionally laid up for repair. Delays were also caused by the transportation of large quantities of stock. In 1853, a suspension bridge was mooted as a replacement. Four years later, a public meeting at Howick discussed ways of having a bridge erected.
In January 1862, Auckland’s Provincial Council agreed to draw up an estimate for the cost of a ‘substantial Bridge’. A competition was held for a structure that would not interfere with navigation, leading to the choice of a site spanning the Tamaki beside the entrance to Panmure Basin. The Tamaki Bridge Act, passed in February 1864, allowed the Provincial Superintendent to raise up to £15,000 for bridge construction. The structure was to be part of a much larger programme of public works authorised by the Auckland Loan Act 1863 to enhance the province’s prosperity and status. As well as a bridge at Panmure, works were to include improvements to Auckland harbour and other infrastructure, construction of the Whau Lunatic Asylum, a new Post Office and Customhouse, and a Supreme Court.
The main beneficiaries of a new bridge were settlers who lived or had interests on the east side of the Tamaki, although some in Panmure also stood to gain. Major businessmen such as James Williamson testified to the advantages of a new structure when the Provincial Council, itself dominated by Auckland’s commercial leaders, made decisions about construction. One of those who stood to especially profit was the auctioneer and businessman Alfred Buckland, who owned a nearby stock landing. At this time, the east bank of the Tamaki was the main landing place for cattle from the East Coast making its way to the Auckland market. More generally, the improvement of access across the Tamaki occurred in the context of settler expansion to the south of Auckland, including government invasion of Maori lands during the third New Zealand - or Waikato - War (1863-4).
A design for the bridge was obtained from William Rickford Collett (1810-82), recently appointed as New Zealand’s Chief Superintendent of Roads and Bridges. Collett had previously been a Member of the British Parliament, before serving as Government Surveyor for the Northern Road in New South Wales in the 1850s and that same colony’s Commissioner for Roads in 1861. Another new appointee from Australia, William Weaver (1828-68), was later credited with the bridge design, having overseen its organisation and construction after his appointment as Engineer-in-Chief to Auckland Province in early 1864. Weaver’s professional life had parallels with Colletts’, having trained in England under Isambard Kingdom Brunel before obtaining the post of Colonial Architect in New South Wales in 1854. He subsequently undertook private work in Australia before taking responsibility for the ambitious programme of works run by Auckland Province in the mid-1860s, and was later to become Telegraph Engineer for New Zealand.
Weaver prepared a model of the Panmure bridge, which was exhibited at the 1865 New Zealand Industrial Exhibition. The bridge’s swing span design was comparatively new in a New Zealand context, occurring immediately after the first large-scale examples had been commissioned and erected by the Canterbury Provincial Government at Kaiapoi (1863) and Heathcote (1864). Swing span bridges formed an important technology in the early days of improved land transport, when waterborne trade and communication was still the prevailing mode. They were to become the most common type of movable bridge in New Zealand, enabling waterborne and road (or rail) transport to be simultaneously accommodated.
Construction of the Panmure Swing Span Bridge (1864-5)
Construction of the Panmure Bridge appears to have been more complex than its Canterbury forerunners and, at an eventual cost of £17,025, significantly more expensive. The bridge was planned to be at least 720 feet long (including its abutments) and, other than its iron swing span and stone abutments, was constructed of timber. Unlike the Canterbury bridges, the swing-span was to swivel from the east abutment rather than a pier in the centre of the river.
Tenders for construction were advertised in April 1864. The winning contractors were McNeill and Wilson, from Victoria. Henry McNeill (?1831-1889), who managed the project, was later to erect the Wanganui Swing Bridge (1869-71) and other structures in the Manawatu. Work on the Panmure bridge started in early October 1864.
Initial difficulties were encountered both during the driving of totara piles and construction of abutments. The local geology required piles of an unanticipated length, driven up to eighteen feet into the river bed. Damage to copper sheathing caused during this process also necessitated repairs by specialist divers from Cape Colony, who used up-to-date equipment - Heinke’s Patent Diving Apparatus, recently employed for construction of Westminster Bridge, London - to work underwater. Efforts to find local stone for abutment construction also had to be given up, requiring the importation of basalt blocks from Melbourne, dressed and numbered ready for erection. A coffer dam was erected around the east abutment, with blocks hoisted into place by a travelling crane.
The iron swing span section was promoted as ‘one of the most perfect mechanical contrivances of the kind in the Southern hemisphere’. Continuing the strong Australian connections of the bridge’s construction, it was commissioned from Messrs. P.N. Russell and Company of Sydney at a cost of over £3000. P.N. Russell were one of the largest engineering works in Australia and had previously provided equipment for one of designer William Collett’s mining ventures in New South Wales. The opening for the swing bridge mechanism was in place by May 1865.
The final cornerstone was laid by the businessman and politician, Robert Graham (1820-85), at a ceremony in October 1865. Graham was the member of the House of Representatives for Franklin, and had just stepped down as Provincial Superintendent, having seen many of the public works and buildings started during his tenure come to fruition. The bridge was used by the public for the first time to allow attendance at the Howick Races on Boxing Day 1865. However, work on the approaches was not completed until March 1866. An early accident involving a horse-drawn vehicle resulted in the death of its driver, Thomas Beake (also reported as William Peek), said to have been one of the oldest omnibus drivers in the colony.
Completion of the bridge stimulated economic development of the area. Impacts included the launch of a daily return omnibus trip between Auckland and Howick. The cost of the bridge was to be recouped from tolls. These were reduced for foot passengers and stock after representations from powerful individuals including Alfred Buckland, who regularly transported flocks of 500-1000 sheep across the river. The swing bridge was initially obliged to be opened for vessels whenever required between sunrise and sunset. The collection of tolls was advertised for tender to private parties. In 1866, they were purchased by John Scarrott at the rate of £400 per year. A wooden toll house of Gothic design was erected beside the swing mechanism on the east bank.
In October 1867, an illustration of the bridge appeared in the London Illustrated News.
Subsequent use and modification
The bridge attracted a variety of activities from soon after its opening. In early 1866, the toll house was appointed an official polling place for elections to the House of Representatives, and also nominations for representatives to serve Franklin District. Both positions were held by the bridge’s promoter, Robert Graham. The bridge was sometimes used as a meeting place. In 1867, about 300 schoolchildren from Panmure and Howick gathered at the structure before processing to the opening of a new Catholic Hall in Panmure. The Auckland Garrison Hunt also met at, or near the bridge. The Pakuranga Hunt Club similarly advertised to gather at the Panmure Bridge from at least 1875, and was still meeting there in 1913.
Night opening of the swing span was allowed from 1867 on the payment of 5s per vessel. This reflected the importance of ongoing trade on the Tamaki to settlement further up the river, notably at Otahuhu. In the mid-1870s, Otahuhu was declared to be the largest agricultural settlement in Auckland Province. Farmers used the river to transport wheat, chaff and farm produce. Waterborne trade may have declined after Otahuhu was connected to Auckland by rail in 1875.
Initial repairs to the bridge appear to have been undertaken in 1872. After abolition of Provincial government in 1876, control of the bridge was transferred to central government. In 1879, further repairs were carried out, at which time the swing mechanism was closed. A report in 1882 identified that the turntable of the swing mechanism was ‘very much out of order’, and would require thorough overhauling and substantial repair. Repairs to the value of £515 were carried out between April and June 1883 by the contractor J.J. O’Brien.
During the economic depression of the 1880s, the government became embroiled in a dispute with the local Road Board about responsibility for the bridge. The Board refused to take control until extensive repairs had been undertaken. In December 1887, the services of the existing bridge caretaker were dispensed with, leading to problems for people crossing the river when no replacement was installed. A tender for further repairs to the bridge was tendered in 1888. That for £158 from E. Mills was accepted. In 1889, the bridge was vested in the Pakuranga Road Board. Nearby Road Boards on either side of the Tamaki were also required to contribute towards its upkeep.
The bridge accommodated new forms of transport as they arose. Early bicycle races from Panmure to Parnell began at the bridge in 1889 and 1890. The bridge also featured in military practices or manoeuvres, including during the Russian Scare of 1885 and a visit to Auckland by Lord Kitchener in 1910.
The bridge was evidently deteriorating when an engineer was despatched to report on its condition in 1895. The structure was estimated to cost £1675 to repair and £3500 to replace. Repair work was carried out in 1897-8. Totara and kauri sold at the bridge by the Road Boards may represent an attempt to sell replaced timber as a way of defraying costs. Similar sales in 1899 and 1901 could suggest on-going work. The bridge decking was tarred and sanded in 1900. By-laws in 1898 required that all those crossing the bridge should proceed at walking pace. Further by-laws in 1903 outlawed fishing and riding bicycles across the bridge.
By this time, the Tamaki was no longer as important for commercial waterborne traffic. When a new bridge was mooted in 1913, it was stated that few vessels went further upstream than Panmure.
Demolition of the timber superstructure (1916)
Much of the bridge was demolished when a new ferro-concrete structure was erected a short distance downstream. The replacement structure was opened by the Prime Minister, W.F. Massey, in August 1916. At the opening ceremony, reference was made to the history of the earlier bridge and its contribution to the development of the region. Tenders for purchase of the timber parts of the 1864-5 structure had been advertised in April 1916. Removal was to occur after the new bridge had been opened for traffic.
Significant parts of the old bridge were left in place on the east bank, notably those elements connected with the swing span mechanism. These included the iron superstructure of the swing span, turntable, winch, and main stone abutment. Adjoining elements connected with the bridge were removed. In 1918, the Pakuranga Road Board sold the wooden caretakers’ house at the east end of the bridge.
Later images show that the northern parts of the bridge remnants were re-decked for use as a private jetty. In 1959, the structure still retained its distinctive twin latticed columns and stays. These were evidently removed by 1980, by which time a marina building had been erected both on top of and below the jetty decking. A replacement marina was constructed on piles, over the top of the bridge remnants after 1990. In 2013, the swing bridge mechanism was conserved.
